Leo (with other noble figures from the past), who portrays Shoeshine and the title character in Underdog, from Walt Disney Pictures.Credit
Walt Disney Pictures

A motherless boy, a graceless dog and a witless script propel “Underdog,” a live-action resurrection of the 1960s television series about a canine superhero who speaks in rhyme while fighting crime. (Sorry, it’s catching.)

Ejected from the K-9 unit when he mistakes a leg of pork for a bomb, a chronically inept beagle (voiced by Jason Lee) is adopted by a cop-turned-security guard (Jim Belushi) and his moody son (Alex Neuberger). But after the luckless pooch is grabbed up by a loony scientist (Peter Dinklage) bent on “genetic manipulation,” a lab accident leaves him with more than just the ability to fetch. Now he understands language, aerodynamics and the true purpose of a telephone kiosk.

Back in the day, movie mutts were permitted to have adventures and their dignity too. Neither Lassie nor Rin Tin Tin was required to communicate via a computer-generated mouth, and there is something deeply unsettling about Mr. Lee’s voice (which fatally conjures his Southern-fried narration for NBC’s “My Name Is Earl”) emanating from Underdog’s flapping lips. Sharing a major plot point with Todd Holland’s far livelier “Firehouse Dog,” the lackluster story connects the clichés but leaves the characters isolated.

“Underdog” may have been originally created to sell cereal for General Mills, but this latest incarnation couldn’t sell Frisbees at a dog park.